Panties For Her Soldier
There’s hope for the mainstream media yet. Old and stodgy they may be, but when Time publishes a story about a combat soldier who carries his wife’s panties in harm’s way as a good luck talisman, it’s refreshing. Better yet, they report it deadpan, with nary a hint of puritanical eyebrow raising nor distancing jocularity:
Corporal Michael Compton carries a plastic bag containing a pair of his wife’s underwear. She gave it to him before his first deployment to Iraq, when they were still dating. “She said that she would stick by me,” he says.
But on a patrol outside Fallujah, the bag fell out of his pocket and blew away. “I thought it was long gone,” he says. A week later, while “out in the middle of nowhere,” he noticed a plastic bag and picked it up. The underwear was inside.
“I couldn’t believe it. I guess it was a sign because, sure enough, when I got back, me and my wife got married. I deployed again to Iraq, and I figured I should bring it with me. After all, if it found its way back to me, maybe it could guide me back to her.”
What makes this all the more fun is the photo, which is, sadly, buried in a horrid Flash-y slide show that makes the specific photo unlinkable harder to link. (I said there was hope for old media, not that they actually and currently have two clues to rub together when it comes to putting stuff on the web.) The photo shows the soldier, his plastic baggy, and what looks like a very insubstantial bit of fine feminine frippery inside. Her granny panties, these were not!
Thanks to Pursed Lips for the link. Updated: And thanks to Olav for rooting out the direct link to the photo.
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=1803
Unlinkable? Nah, you just need to do some digging. Here you go: http://i.timein...4.jpg
Oh… And whatever can be said about the war in Iraq, and I won’t say it, this is a rather sweet story. Let’s hope nobody gets hurt there and all will return home.
It’s Picture #4 for those interested.
Olav, amen to that.
And thanks for the digging for the link, I’ve edited the post to use it.
Honestly, I didn’t intend to send the panties along with him (I’m not the person written about, just “yet another military spouse”). Thrown in the wash along with his stuff at the last minute before he left, in a last-ditch effort to make sure everything was ready to go, they snuck in — yellow thong. Not to be discovered until unpacking in Iraq, and though not utilitarian like so many of the other devices packed up, certainly cheerful! =) I am glad they stowed away and made his days a little more cheerful!
That’s a very sweet story. Thumbs-up to Time for writing it up so nicely.
having a special memento of your partner can make long times apart a bit less lonely. plus, when people ask about photos of loved ones, he can say “yeah, here’s a photo, and here’s a pair of sexy underwear she gave me to remind me of her.” Hard to beat something like that
What a sweet and real story of a man’s affection.
I guess he’s using a panty shield!
I don’t get why he kept them in a bag, though.
Very likely to preserve the smell. Otherwise it would evaporate in all that heat.
My uncle when over there in 91 and brought me back a vile of sand. It’s very, very, very, fine grain of sand (like fine grain of sandpaper). Keeping them in a bag would keep sand out of her unmentionables so she can wear them again when her soldier comes home. If she chooses to wear them. ;)